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FOREIGN CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY SERIES. 
No. XXI. 


Missions the Heart of Church Life.” 


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Y proposition is that missions are the 
heart of church life. I expect to. 
demonstrate its truthfulness. I expect to 
prove that what the heart is to the body, 
an organizing and distributing organ, 
sending life, nerve force, and nutritive 
energy to every part, that missions are to 
the church—its very life and ground of 
being. In developing this proposition, we 
shall see that : 

I. Missions are the heart of the Godhead. 
—Salvation for every man through the 
gospel, is the first great thought in the 
mind of God. Paul tells us that ‘“‘to sum 
up all things in Christ,’’ both things in 
heaven and things on earth, is God’s eter- 


nal purpose. ‘This is the— 


““QOne far-off, divine event, 
To which the whole creation moves.’’ 


Indeed, from the time God said to Abra- 
ham: ‘‘In thee and in thy seed shall a// 
families of the earth be blessed,’’ until he 
said, through the last of the prophets, 
‘“From the rising of the sun to the going 
down of the same, my name shall be great 


*Address by W. J. Wright, Washington, D. C., delivered 
at the Chattanooga Convention. 


amoug the Gentiles; and in every place in- 
éense shall be offered unto my namie,’’ this 
one great thought was so kept before the 
people as to admit no doubt that missions 
are the very heart of God. 

In the New Testament we read that 
God is willing that zoze should perish, but 
willeth that a/7 men should be saved ; and 
that ‘‘God having raised up his servant, 
sent him to bless us in turning away every 
one of us from our iniquity.’’ 

Jesus was a missionary sent out by the 
Father, for he so describes himself: ‘‘I 
am come to do the will of him that sent 
me;’’ ‘‘ God sez? not his Son into the world 
to judge the world, but that, the world 
through him might be saved.”’ 

Again Jesus says: ‘‘I will pray the 
Father and he shall sezd you another Com- 
forter;’’ ‘‘ But the Comforter, even the 
Holy Spirit, whom the Father will sezd in 
my name, shall. teach you all things.’’ 
Paul tells us that ‘‘God sex¢f forth the 
Spirit of his Son into our hearts.’’ So 
near are missions to the heart of God that 
he sent out two missionaries—his Son and 
the Holy Spirit! Until the gospel has 
been preached in all the nations, missions 
must be the very heart of God. 

It is equally evident that missions must 
be the very heart of Him who said: ‘‘I 
and the Father are one.’’ Certain it is that 

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the missionary idea dominated Christ’s en- 
tire ministry. He describes himself as a 
shepherd who leaves the ninety and nine 
and goes to seek the one lost sheep. Won- 
drous love! Jesus would be a missionary 
if but one were lost! Moreover, Jesus 
himself selected, taught, trained and sent 
out twelve and seventy, eighty-two mis- 
sionaries in three years! Stupendous work! 
Were not missionaries the very heart of 
Christ ? 

After his resurrection, he gave but one 
command to his followers. It was to go to 
all the world and preach the gospel to the 
whole creation. Here his followers and 
missions were joined in perpetual union. 
What the Lord thus joined, let no man put 
asunder. 

His interest in missions did not cease 
with his ascension, for ere long, at the right 
hand of God exalted, he poured forth the 
Spirit in fulfilment of his promise, ‘‘If I 
go, I will sezd him unto you.’’ So in 
heaven, Jesus joined the Father in sending 
out the Holy Spirit as a missionary. 

After the ascension our Lord showed 
himself and spoke but once. What was 
his purpose that one time? To select one 
more man for missions, the cause which 
was upon his heart! ‘‘ To this end have I 
appeared unto the, to appoint thee a minis- 
ter and a witness. Depart: for I will send 


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thee far hence unto the Gentiles.”’. Holy 
cause, and first in Jesus’ heart, when he 
would interrupt the joy of heaven to call 
and commission a missionary! Missions 
are the very heart of Jesus Christ. 

Missions are likewise the very heart of 
the Holy Spirit. We have seen that the 
Spirit isa missionary sent forth from heaven 
by the Father and Son. He is to abide here 
as a missionary forever. Not a step was 
taken toward the evangelization of the 
world by the apostolic church, except under 
the express direction of the Spirit. He it 
was who preached the first missionary ser- 
mon; for those who spoke on Pentecost 
spoke only as the Spirit gave them utter- 
ance. He it was who sent Philip to preach 
to the Ethiopian, and Peter to Cornelius. 
At his command the church at Antioch set 
apart Barnabas and Saul as missionaries, 
the Spifit affirming that he had called them 
for that very work. ‘‘So they, being sez 
forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Se- 
leucia;’’ nor would he permit Paul to preach 
in Asia or Mysia, but forbidding him to 
labor in those provinces, he directed his 
course to the great heathen continent of 
Europe. 

Thus the Spirit .brooded over the first 
Christian missionaries, and in person di- 
rected their labors; and through the mis- 
sionary enterprise of the Spirit, himself a 


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missionary, we are all baptized into the 
‘fone body.’’ Without doubt, missions are 
the very heart, not only of the Spirit, but 
of the entire Godhead. 

IT. Missions were the heart of the apos- 
tolic church. We have seen that missions 
are the very heart of Father, Son and 
Holy Spirit. Those in the apostolic church 
were declared to be ‘‘partakers of the divine 
nature.’’ Missions must, therefore, have 
been first with them. Indeed, the church 
had nothing to do until she heeded the 
command, ‘‘Go, preach,’’ and will have 
nothing to do when she ceases heeding it. 
The Holy Spirit at the very start made her 
a missionary organization, and that she 
must remain, if she remains at all. 

Christ came to seek and save the whole 
lost world, but did not stay in the flesh 
long enough to carry the good news to 
every creature. That his unfinished work 
might be carried on to completion, Jesus or- 
ganized the church. She is the present 
visible Christ or manifestation of divine 
life among us; she exists to do only what he 
would be doing if he were still flesh and dwell- 
ing among us ; she is the divine agency for 
carrying on what is in the divine mind. 
Now, the chief thought of the divine mind 
is the salvation of the entire human race. 
Therefore, the chief work of the church is 
the evangelization of the whole world. 


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‘*To rescue souls forlorn and_lost, 

The troubled, tempted, tempest tos’t; 

To heal, to comfort, and to teach 

The fiery tongues of Pentecost 

Their symbols were, that they should preach 

In every form of human speech, 

From continent to continent.’’ 

Strange, it seems, that those Spirit- 
filled men did not go out from Jerusalem at 
once, after Pentecost, to evangelize the 
world ; stranger that, for six years, they 
did not preach beyond sight of Herod’s 
temple.. The church had forgotten, or had 
not learned her duty ; and, because neither 
the command compelled nor love con- 
strained her to go to the lost, God had to 
adopt some sterner means of making her be 
“about her Father’s business.’’ 

*“God moves in a mysterious way, 
His wonders to perform ; 


He plants his footsteps on the sea, 
Aud rides upon the storm.”’ 


This time he rode upon a whirlwind of 
persecution, which smote the non-mission- 
ary church in Jerusalem, And happily, 
‘““They that were scattered abroad went 
about preaching the Word.’ A new era 
had come! ‘The woman had at last lighted 
a lamp, taken her broom and commenced 
sweeping to find the lost coin! Then 
‘“ Philip went down into the city of Samaria 
and proclaimed unto them the Christ.’’ 
Under the express direction of the Spirit, he 

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made a missionary journey to turn one man 
to the Lord, after this he was a missionary 
in all the cities from Azotus to Ceesarea. 

Four years later Peter knew that ‘‘ God 
is no respecter of persons;’’ and _ that, 
through him as a missionary, ‘'God had 
granted unto the Gentiles, also, repentance 
unto life.’’ 

And how shail we describe the indescrib- 
able, the missionary labors of Paul? Glory- 
ing in the cross; knowing naught but the 
crucified ; requesting prayers that he, with 
boldness, might make known the mystery 
of God in Christ Jesus; desiring to build on 
no other man’s foundation, his aim being 
to preach only where Christ had not been 
named ; seeing visions of men beseeching 
him to come and help them; and, in re- 
sponse, hurrying from city to city, prov- 
ince to province, continent to continent, 
yearning to preach in Rome and then in 
Spain; enduring labor, prison, stripes, 
beatings, stoning and shipwreck ; suffering 
from his anxious ‘‘care of all the churches,’’ 
from hunger, thirst, cold, heat, nakedness ; 
yet, telling us that none of these things 
moved him from the steadfast purpose of 
his heart to preach in the great regions 
beyond ; spending and being spent for the 
sake of souls; burned and consumed in 
spreading gospel light, as the carbon in the 
arc-lamp consunies itself in dispelling dark- 


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ness; and, in a divine passion for souls, 
wishing himself anathema from Christ for 
his brethren’s sake ! 

Nothing could daunt or deter the apos- 
tles; the whole church was a vast missionary 
organization: ‘‘ Every convert a preacher, 
every proselyte a propagandist, every con- 
gregation a training school for missionaries 
and a missionary light-house.’’ 

They believed that ‘‘All are to go, and 
to go toall;’’ that ¢o cease to go, ts to cease 
to grow. And being big with the love of 
God and compassion for their fellow men, 
““They went forth and preached every- 
where, the Lord working with them, and 
confirming the work by signs that fol- 
lowed.’’ Without doubt missions were the 
heart of the apostolic church. 

ITT, That missions are the heart of the 
thurch-life ts evident tn church history.—The 
spirit of missions was the heritage of the 
church immediately foliowing the apostolic 
age. Rapid, triumphant, wonderful, was 
her march against false systems. With no 
force save the constraining force of love in 
the gospel ; with no riches save the wealth 
of His grace; refusing the patronage of 
great men, scorning covenant and com- 
promise, preferring combat and conquest, 
it was but few years till she undermined 
the whole vast structure of heathenism, so 
that at the end of the fourth century the 

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Roman Empire was nominally Christian, 
and paganisin practically extinct. 

But shortly she began to feel that she 
had need of nothing, was rich and in goods 
increased. She made covenants instead of 
conquests. The ‘‘ Bride of Christ’’ be- 
came the “‘ harlot’’ of wealth, worldliness, 
and temporal power. Being untrue to the 
Bridegroom, she ceased to ‘‘Go.’’ She 
became corrupt and degenerate through 
heathen practices, which were at first toler- 
ated, then endured and embraced. ‘Thus 
the church, a pure, swift-flowing, life- 
giving stream became a filthy, noisome 
cesspool. 

When the world so far forgot God that 
even he despaired of saving it, he gave it 
over to the deluge, and but a remnant, 
‘eight souls were saved by water.’’ When 
the heart of the church became so deceitful 
and desperately wicked that she ceased to 
go abroad with the gospel, the very thing 
for which she was brought forth, God gave 
her over to the sword of the Saracens, and 
her remnant was saved as a brand from the 
burning—“‘ saved as by fire.’’ 

The churches of North Africa lost their 
missionary zeal, and God swept them from 
the earth. Similar was the fate of those 
in Arabia, Palestine and Asia Minor. The 
besom of destruction swept away the 
churches planted by Paul, and their meet- 


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ing houses became mosques and places of 
prayer for followers of the false prophet. 
Herein is a lesson. The church must go to 
the lost, or go to oblivion and death; ‘‘exten- 
-sion or extinction’’ are the only alternatives. 
“Heaven's gate is shut on him who comes a one; 
Save thoua soul, and thou shalt save thine own.” 
When the church lost her missionary 
spirit the dark ages set in. For a thousand 
years the papal anti-Christ gave no com- 
mand to go. Christ said ‘‘Go,’? but the 
Pope said ‘‘ No.’’ For at least five hundred 
years nothing was done to extend the king- 
dom of God; and the un-christian, non- 
missionary, paganized, papal church lost 
ground, When the heart is strong and 
healthful, and the various physical organs 
active, the life-giving blood is driven out 
strongly, even to the extremes of the body. 
There is a glow of health and joy in labor. 
But when the heart is weak and flabby, 
circulation is poor, and the non-nourished 
body invites disease and death. Now, mis- 
sions are the heart of the church life. 
When this heart is strong and active, and 
sends out the life-giving gospel to the 
uttermost parts of the earth, she will be 
both edified and multiplied ; but when this 
heart is weak and sluggish, and missionary 
activity declines, the body of Christ, the 

church, is ‘‘ sick unto death.”’ 
During these dark non-miissionary ages 

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the church was not inert. She had her 
activities, but they mark a fall from heaven 
to hell. She sent out missionaries a million 
strong; not to rescue souls and retake the 
world for Christ, but simply to wrench 
Palestine from the ‘‘ infidel Turk !’’ Souls 
might go, if the church could secure the 
“Holy City” and the ‘‘ Holy Sepulcher !’’ 
Gigantic enterprises, these -crusades, and 
prosecuted with immense treasure and loss 
of life. They teach us that defeat and 
humiliation await the church when she 
engages in any but the Master’s work, or 
in any but the Master’s spirit. 

There was one other activity during this 
non-mussionary age. It came to destroy 
men’s lives, not to save. It was ‘‘blas- 
phemously miscalled the ‘Holy Office’ or 
‘Inquisition.’’’ In its milder phases, it 
dealt with the individual whom they 
‘“crowned as heresiarch, with painted 
devils on his cap, or cropped his ears, or 
slit his nose, branded him with hot irons, 
or broke him on the wheel, or stretched 
him on the rack, or hung him with a 
strappado, or blew him up to bursting with 
a bellows, or roasted him over a slow fire’’ 
In its severer form it dealt with tribes or 
nations, and the so-called ‘‘ Vicegerent of 
the Prince of Peace,’’ the Pope. demon- 
strated his descent from the devil by the 
command he gave. Christ said: ‘‘Go, 

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preach ;”” bit the Pope ‘said: “*.Go, kill-”’ 
‘*But,’’ demurred his minions, “‘In the 
whole nation there may be a few faithful. 
How shall we know and spare them?” 
*Go,’’ roared the Pope, .‘‘Go, kill all! 
The Lord will know his own!’’ Activity 
is a law of church life ; if not active in the 
Lord’s work, still active, even though in 
the devil’s; and when not engaged in 
gathering, then engaged in scattering. 


When the Reformation dawned, un- 
fortunately for both church and world, the 
zeal of the reformers in general was polemic 
and not evangelistic. They battled over 
creed and dogma, but let souls go. The 
reformed churches cared nothing and did 
nothing for missions ; and all their mission- 
aries for two hundred years or more may 
be counted on the fingers of one hand. 

The result of their home-staying and 
discussion was division, sub-division into 
sect and minor sect; then biting, devour- 
ing, and every evil work, till the movement 
was shorn of its power and was largely 
self-consumed. 


‘‘A millstone and the human heart are ever driven 
round ; 

If they have nothing else to grind, they must 
themselves be ground.’’ 

LV. That mtssions are the heart of church 
life is still further shown tn the fact that the 
blight and curse of God appear to rest upon 

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non-missionary churches. For instance, un- 
til near the close of the eighteenth century, 
Protestant England was stone-blind to the 
duty, privilege and opportunity of world- 
wide evangelization. Consider the state of 
her church life. Preachers cut short the 
Sunday sermon to attend a fox-chase ; some 
of them drank to excess; some swore and 
gambled like pirates, and they were gen- 
erally unclean in thought, word and. life. 
Blackstone visited all the leading churches 
of London, and ‘‘could discover no more 
Christianity in the sermons than in the 
writings of Cicero or Seneca.’’ Isaae Tay- 
lor said that England was in virtual 
heathenism, with a lascivious literature, 
an infidel society, a worldly church and a 
deistic theology. ‘‘To cease being evan- 
gelistic is to cease being evangelical,’’ was 
fully proved in the Anglican Church of 
this period ; for fo cease to send is to cease to 
mend. 

In America darkness covered the land, 
and gross darkness the people. Piety lay 
dead, and Pity shed no tears at the funeral. 
‘““There was an awful dearth of conver- 
sions;”’ immorality and infidelity were 
frightfully common ; the church and Chris- 
tianity of the time were made a common 
butt of ridicule ; and it was thought that if 
the world could be rid of all religion, peace,’ 
joy and prosperity would at once abound. 


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The Lord was no longer with the degener- 
ate, unmissionary church, for the promise, 
‘*TLo, Iam with you,’’ is conditioned upon 
the going: ‘‘Lo, Iam with you,’’ as you 
go, is the proper interpretation. 

No anti-mission, or o-mission church 
can rightly claim that promise, for it 
has failed to observe the condition. All 
such are doomed to a rude awakening or a 
slow death. 

V. That missions are the heart of church 
life may be seen in the experience of the 
vartous denominations, or that of single con- 
gregations. A glance at the churches will 
show that they, like nations, are either 
‘‘ living or dying ;’’ and that zz exact ratio 
with thety missionary operations, they are 
living or dying : if missionary, then living ; 
if non-missionary, then diseased and dying. 

The Unitarians and Universalists are 
non-missionary peoples. They have made 
no substantial gains in years: ‘The Prim- 
itive, or Old School Baptists are anti-mis- 
sionary. ‘They were once about as numerous 
as the regular Baptists, a great missionary 
people, but are now not more than one- 
fiftieth as strong. The missionary Baptists 
are living ; the anti-missionary Baptists are 
dying. Send orend are the only alternatives. 

Missions were the heart of life in Spur- 
geon’s great congregation. Ii has been 
‘““A center of evangelizing influence; the 


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mother of churches, schools, missions, 
preaching stations, orphanages, and alms- 
houses; it has trained thousands of young 
men to preach the gospel; it has sent out 
more missionaries than any single congre- 
gation in the world. Because it scatters, it 
increases.”’ 

A striking contrast is the history of the 
Brooklyn tabernacle, where Talmage minis- 
tered so long. His was an o-mission church, 
giving almost nothing for the spread of the 
gospel. It was weighed and found wanting. 
Even the long-suffering, merciful Lord could 
endure it no more, and so spewed it out of 
his mouth! Surely extend or end is the law 
of church life. 

And what ueed I say more to show the 
results of missions and o-missions, either at 
home or abroad? Is it not plain that we 
need missions for ‘‘extension, intension, 
attention, retention, and every tension but 
pretension ;’’ and that ‘‘mzsstons are the 
heart of church life ?’’ 

VI. The truth of my proposition ts still 
further made evident by the fact that, since 
the beginning of the ‘‘era of modern mts- 
stons,’’ a hundred years ago, the church has 
made more progress than in the preceding 
twelve hundred years. In the number of 
lands occupied by Christian workers; the 
extent of territory embraced ; the number | 
of translations made of the Bible; the 


5 


numper of people made accessible to the 
gospel; and the number actually added to 
the church, the last hundred years, this 
splendid era of modern missions, is the time 
of Christianity’s greatest triumphs since 
the days of Paul. Thus. we see that the 


great victories won ‘‘ For Christ and the 
Church ”’ are the victories of missions. 

Finally, because missions are the heart 
of church life, I would remark that missions 
must have a larger place in pulpit, press 
and college. The preacher, editor and 
professor must teach more and more that 
this is our chief business. hen uniting 
with the church it should be made clear to 
all persons that they are joining a mission- 
ary society. _As the coin answers exactly 
to the die which strikes it, so does a convert 
generally to the spirit of the church where 
he turned to the Lord. It should be made 
clear that the great commission is binding 
upon every oneinthe church. Let us have 
robust teaching, giving and working. Make 
the whole church feel that if missions are 
not made of first importance God’s gracious 
designs cannot be carried out. Use or lose. 
Use all your opportunities and powers or 
lose every privilege and blessing, is the 
Lord’s message to the church. 

If this is done, ere long there will be a 
new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, 
wherein every knee shall bow to Him and 
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord. Then will heaven rejoice over this 
renewed earth. Then shall go up the great 
and final shout of victory, ‘‘ Hallelujah ! 
for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.’’ 


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